Saving the Siblings
by OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: What if around the time of C.R.E.A.M–before Max and Logan were that close–they agreed to have a more sibling-esque relationship, since that was what Max was used to? How would the story have played out differently from there? But Lomax will still be endgame, I swear.
1. Chapter 1

**Preface**

Max loved Logan as a friend, she really did, but there were so many times he annoyed the hell out of her... which didn't help her sort out the mixed feelings that she had for him at all (mixed feelings that a Manticore soldier shouldn't have had), and she found herself wishing that he was one of her siblings, or something, so she'd at least know what to do with him.

And she must have said this out loud at dinner that night—after the two of them got into an argument about morality as they always did—because Logan flinched like he'd been slapped and then looked at Max rather coldly.

But he sobered up instantly when Max began trying to take it back, with a: "Look, Logan, I-", Logan cut Max off by smiling at her softly and saying, "I can be a sibling for you, Max, if that's what you want. I can... try to be less judgmental and try to be supportive—the way brothers are—and I can… tease you, too. Perhaps it'll warm this relationship of ours up and keep it less quid pro quo. I was probably wrong to ever even start it out like that. Deal?"

And Logan sounded so sure of himself—and was clearly trying to put his best foot forward here—that Max thought it made sense herself...

And so she tried to push down the feelings she sometimes had around him—the kind that made her feel safe in a way that she hadn't since Hannah: something that not even her fellow X-5s had ever made her feel.

Max reached across the table, took Logan's hand, and said "Deal."


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: I remember nothing about Vada's personality from the books, so I'm making it all up myself. Yep. Also, this "episode" is technically "411 on the DL", but things are playing out somewhat differently than they did there, because of the ripple effect of Max and Logan deciding to try and just be sibling-like themselves.**

"So, lemme get this straight," Original Cindy said the next morning, as she and Max pedaled into Jam Pony and Normal glared at them for being late. "You told Hot Boy ya just want 'im to be your brother. And he took it well? Even though 'e looked at chu all dreamy-eyed, when we talked about chu?"

Max scoffed. And even in being a genetically engineered killing machine, who had grace like no other, she still almost ran into Normal's desk because of the absurdity of what Original Cindy had just said "OC! I highly doubt he did that! Logan and I aren't like that. And, yeah… he took it well. Goes to show that not all men think with their third leg, huh?"

Original Cindy seemed doubtful about that, but didn't comment any further. Which was probably a good thing. Normal was currently snapping at them for being late and telling them to "bip bip bip", as he shoved packages into both of their hands.

Max was about to take hers to its intended destination with no reaction, when suddenly she caught something with her cat-like eyes. This package had been slightly ripped open, and within it was a newspaper article. A newspaper article with her barcode number on it and an address.

Normal, unfortunately, noticed what Max had done and was quick to try and take the package out of her hands. But she fought against him. "Hey, Missy! That right there is private property! You had no right to do that, and it's coming out of your paycheck!"

"Yeah, sure, whatever," Max said with a calm façade as she handed the package back to Normal, knowing he wouldn't trust her to deliver it now and that he needed to patch the rest of it up before he gave it to another deliverer, anyway

On the inside, Max was panicking. With her number being in the paper, was it Lydecker trying to draw her out of one of her sibs trying to contact her?

"You okay, Suga?" Original Cindy asked, in having seen Max become less of a fog bank there, in actually showcasing some real emotion right there… fear.

And even though Max was trying to improve her relationship with everyone in her day to day life, by being more honest with them (save for Logan, perhaps, because of the mess of a situation she'd gotten them into), Max lied yet again when she turned to her soul sister with a sugary sweet smile on her face. "Of course I am."

...

The forefront of Max, as she was out in Seattle delivering a different package for Normal, of course thought that the whole thing had to be a trap. Of course it was that... how could it be anything else? But there was a stupid, rebellious part of her that hadn't listened to warnings about "phony sentimentality", that wanted to go check out this address… that she was thinking was a Playfair Cipher. But what was the key word to decode it?

Despite how Max had at first _not_ wanted to go see Logan about this—because surely he'd care that she was going to go risk her life, and would thus do away with their whole: "we're going to pretend to be siblings to each other" shtick for the moment—she found that she had to… she just needed his advice on this, like no other's.

When Max reached Logan's suite in Fogle Towers—and broke into it to get in, once again—the first thing she saw was Logan clearly coming out of the shower, as he pulled a towel off of his neck and put a shirt on... And almost immediately he was pissy: Max could read it on his face, probably because he couldn't come out of the shower on his feet any other hot-blooded male. Most of the time, Max didn't understand men at all... and so she pretended to not notice his tude, and prayed that he would leave it alone, too.

"Max, what are you doing here?" Logan asked with great caring in his tone, as he wheeled over to where she was in his living room. Apparently, he _was_ going to be civil today; and in thinking that he needed to be rewarded for that, Max winked at him before she instantly regretted it and tried to awkwardly move the conversation along.

"So, Logan... dilemma time. Someone has put my barcode in the paper—and it's like opening the front page and finding my undies, I tell you-and have put an address on where to meet up via a Playfair Cipher…. I just figured out that the key word was 'Maxie'. But get this: when figured out, it leads to Vogelsang's address... Clearly, I can't go, right? I mean, it's obviously a trap. Vogelsang must have been compromised… and found out things about me, he shouldn't know."

Logan opened his mouth once—and via his pinched eyebrows, and the way he seemed about to motion that Bling should come in here to also talk sense into her, perhaps, Max could tell he'd been about to tell her not to go, too—but then closed it, before opening it again to say something he hadn't been planning on before, she guessed.

"I think, Max," Logan said, as he now wheeled away from her to put some distance between them, which immediately had Max feeling suspicious and offended as she put her hand on her hip and glared at him. "That it's one of two options. One, Vogelsang is trying to lure you into a trap or maybe even has a conscience and wants to warn you away from one... but would he really bite the hand that already abuses him? I don't know... I also don't know if he's clever enough to use such a cipher for you.

"But I don't think it's Manticore trying to lure you out. They'd think you'd be too smart for it. And with their pride—even though you're all smarter than they are—I think they'd make the code more difficult to figure out… so I do think it might be one of your siblings."

"And you think I should go after them," Max finished, as she straightened back up and chose to walk towards the man who was living dangerously right now, and suggesting that she risk her life. Again. Max tried to be happy about this news… that it could have been Zack, or Jondy, or Tinga, or any of the other siblings she normally would have been happy to risk her life for the chance to see… but she couldn't quite get there… Something about Logan stepping into that role for her, making her less likely to want to give up what she'd built for herself in Seattle, mayhap?

Outside, it had started raining again—as it always did here in Seattle... particularly when she and Logan were about to make a dumb choice about each other, and the Blue Lady sensed they needed some cold in the air in order to cool themselves off before they did that-and Logan said, "Yes... as a- a brother to you now, I suggest that you go. And I know if it were me, and I had siblings, I would."

And so that only left one thing for Max to do, didn't it? And she reluctantly smiled at Logan, for giving her the advice she had wanted… even though she didn't know if she should do that or not, for so many reasons.

...

Max went to Vogelsang's before the specified time marked on the newspaper. She needed to stake the place out before anything unsavory happened there, and she was. And while her sibling could have been at good as subterfuge as she was right now (Max had decided to go into the ocean before she came here, to hopefully erase her scent from Manticore guard dogs if they were here, and had painted herself in black to even moreso fit in with the night), she just assumed they weren't here yet.

But eventually, she saw a shock of short, blond hair a few floors above her—that could have been Ben, Zack, or Jack… if fate had been kind in some alternate universe for that last one, that was—and she jumped up that way herself, through the windowless opening and to the tenth floor... that looked a lot like a parking garage to Max.

And once there, she saw who could have only been Zack—he looked just like she remembered, and she found herself blinking back tears and gasping at the mere thought of it—as he seemed to try and reach for an invisible person before them...

Finally, Zack sensed Max—and whirled around with his fists out and one foot forward, clearly ready to fight—before Max washed the gunk off her face to show him who she clearly was… she was the only X5 kid who had had these kinds of features, after all. "Zack, it's me. It's Max. If you don't believe me, come around behind me and look at my barcode. I'll put my arms up and not move."

But her eyes must have been sincere... or he must have recognized her voice, or even now—and certainly not have just have memorized every inch of her because he loved her, Max would later try and lie to herself—because the next thing Max knew, she was in Zack's arms as he held onto her for dear life... and as Max clung to this brother of hers, she tried to breathe in all of what she thought she'd been missing for so long... but she felt nothing.

"Maxie... is that really you?" Zack asked, as he buried his face in the crook of her neck... and a part of her beginning to go into heat, no doubt, wanted to kiss him for that action. "We thought- we all thought you were dead! That if you were alive, you would have found us all by now... So to honor you, we decided that—at least this first time—that if one of us ever went back to Manticore and we then heard they'd broken out… That I would put your barcode in the paper with this address, so they'd know where to find me for help. Right now, we're waiting for Vada."

"Vada? …As in that sweet sister of ours, who actually cared about makeup even back at Manticore? And tried to emulate what she saw on some of the guards' faces with chalk?"

And it was just as Max asked that, that said girl came up the flight of stairs that led to this garage on her motorcycle. And this didn't really take Max aback… all X-series transgenics were spectacular with these vehicles, as it must have been in their makeup.

…But this almost seemed too scripted to Max. And Vada seemed too sure of herself, if the hounds from Hell really were supposed to be on her tail… Her hair was also so long—something that Max couldn't imagine that would lend to her fighting for her life well… unless she had been on a deep cover op from Manticore for this, and had had to look as normal as possible for it… And if she'd done that quest for them like a little girl without trying to escape then… what were the chances that she had tried to leave now?

"Vada!" Zack exclaimed the moment he saw her, with a wide smile on his face as he began walking over her to greet her. And Max couldn't believe that their CO Zack, of all people, was forgetting his training and exposing himself to the enemy so easily!

Max got it, she did. Having a sister captured and rescued so easily must have been a dream come true to Zack, on the off-chance they ever tried to do this kind of thing again… but it was _too_ good to be true, was the thing.

"Zack... Listen to me… Do you really think Lydecker would have let Vada escape so easily? This is Lydecker we're talking about! Who probably knew from our genetic makeup, just how long we could stay underwater. But he made us try it to tortured us, anyway!"

Zack looked at Max _furiously_ then—as Vada just seemed to look at them blankly—and here Max had thought that if _anyone_ would have been arguing one of the others might have been turned, it would have been Zack and not her. But as far as Max was concerned, her life was making less and less sense all the time.

"Max," Zack argued, as he reached to put a hand on her shoulder but then swiftly pulled it away, as if he'd been burnt. "There's no way Vada was turned! You should know that better than anyone! Our siblings always meant the most to you… and we all know how to forget things, even when under torture from Psy-Ops."

"Actually, dear brother, Max is right. You should have listened to her," said a sickeningly sweet voice in Max's ear—as she heard a gun being cocked behind her and felt it being pressed against her temple. Fuck. TCs had used grappling guns to get up here the same way she and Zack had, huh? Somehow, Max hadn't stopped to think that anyone would be that well prepared at all. With how long she'd been free without Lydecker finding a trace of her, for the most part, Max had just assumed he had his thumb up his butt… but apparently that wasn't the case. She sighed.

"Vada," Max breathed, as she put her hands on her head. "Why are _you_ doing this, dear sister? Do tell. Did they break you in Psy-Ops that easily? You were always more weak-willed than the rest of us."

Max had expected Vada to hiss at her, and instruct the man under her command to hit her with the butt of the gun or something. But she did no such thing.

Instead, her breath hitched in her throat and blinked back tears. And suddenly it hit Max that maybe Vada wasn't as willing a participant in this as she'd first suspected, if she'd tried to give them a heads-up with her words. And the men behind Max and Zack—three of them actually had him in a chokehold—must have started to realize Vada was teetering on which side she was on here, because this time Max _did_ have the gun slammed into her face… and it disoriented her some, as blood got into her eye. But she carried on, anyway.

"Vada... you were reprogrammed back at Manticore, right? You never got out... this mostly was a trap for us. But at the same time, sister, I don't think you're completely buying their shit, either. Because otherwise, you wouldn't feel a thing about burning us. So, what? You're in the land of question marks now? Well, get _out_ of it and do something, one way or another."

That seemed to make something click within Vada... and Max could see warmth in her sister's eyes, even while she blocked their only exit: the kind that she'd seen reflected in her own so many times when she was with children... Could it have been that Vada was a mother and remembering that she had a child to return to? Where all X5 women particularly maternal?

"Vada, _please_." This time it was Zack: looking at their sister with begging baby blues that Max wanted to swim in, as her womb chose that moment to feel really empty. Damned heat! Max thought, as she slapped herself across the face before her hormones could make her want to jump the men holding her hostage, even.

Before Zack could say anymore, at least ten Manticore men showed up behind Vada at the door… and she surprised everyone, as she suddenly powered her bike and mowed them all down with a _vengeance_.

And just like that, both Max and Zack were done playing the pacifists. Zack took care of the three on him, as he jumped into the air and kicked at one's leg—breaking it—and broke another's neck with his hands… before landing on the third and beating their face in.

Max, meanwhile, did some of the aerial attacks that she was known for. She did a backflip into the air, and knocked her guy out as she kicked out… but not before winking at him. She then punched out a man who was trying to grab her while she was in the air and landed on a girl's neck… Max pinched the pressure point on the back of their neck—which felt good, somehow: that a Manticore soldier could have a weakness in that spot, too—and wished her sweet dreams.

And that left only five new soldiers who had heard the chaos and were coming up to investigate behind Vada. "Zack, Max quick! Get on the motorcycle!" she begged.

The two X5s didn't have to be asked twice. They did just what their sister said, and ran these five men down as they made their mistake… and swept past a witless Lydecker once again.

...

When Zack had left Vada under Max's care (at least temporarily, as he went to get alcohol to celebrate their sis coming back to them… though Max herself wasn't so confident about it yet), she had thought about taking her over to Logan's—because she had to.. because for whatever reason, she still had feelings for him, Max scolded herself—but in the end, she didn't. And this time it wasn't just because she was trying to keep them at the "just friends" level: it was because Max knew she'd have to rehabilitate Vada... and if her sister snapped and killed people, she really didn't want her to take out the beacon of all things good and true, Eyes Only.

And while Max thought it was potentially more dangerous for Vada to be around Kendra—since Kendra had no training to be a "soldier", and hadn't signed up for any of this—she also was thinking that Vada would see that Kendra was a civilian (like Vada's own baby girl, if Max was right about that) and take it easy on her... Or so she was hoping that, anyway.

"So, yeah, Kendra," Max was telling her roommate now-loud enough so Vada could hear her, but not so much that she'd make Kendra realize there was anything weird about them… which wasn't that easy to juggle. "This is my long-lost sister, Vada. She's gonna be staying with us for a while, if that's cool, until she can get things squared away with her family." Max put her hypothesis about Vada into her words, partly to see if she'd get a reaction from her that would prove Max right… and to assure Vada that if she _did_ have a family... she was going to sort it out and go back there soon, so she wasn't constantly endangering Max's roomie here.

"Okay, Max," Kendra said as she paused in the translations she was making for her students and gave Max a considering look. "But one day you're going to have to dish about all this family drama of yours."

Oh. So, it seemed that that Kendra was still suspicious of what Cindy had told her had happened while she'd been in jail, after all. If that was the case—and she kept putting two and two together—then Max supposed might not have a choice on that front. "Soon enough, Kendra," said Max with a slight smile, shocking even herself with it. "Soon enough."

At that point, Kendra had decided to go to bed—as she was tired from a long day of work—and Max perched on the footrest at the end of the couch Vada occupied in their living room. She did this so her sister would know that she was there and find comfort in it, perhaps, but also so she was elevated in case the other brunette decided to attack. It must have been the feline DNA in her making these decisions... because this way, Max knew she'd be able to see Vada move the moment she decided to attack—if she did that—and could then easily leap into her beloved air to fight.

And Vada must have noticed that Max was somewhat skittish—though Max hated thinking of herself that way. And if she could've, she probably would have banned it from the English language after tonight—because Vada ended up answering Max's question from earlier as she nudged her leg with her foot. "You're right, Max. I _do_ have a family... Damn. Why I ever let Lydecker turn me against them, I don't know... And I feel even worse in trying to help him bag you and Zack. I'm so sorry."

"Don't feel too bad, Sis," Max said, as she patted her sister's foot. "We're not all experts at resisting Psy-Ops and making ourselves forget information on our loved ones… or even our own names. I know I'm not."

But even while Max said it, she didn't know if she believed her own words. After all she'd just detailed why Psy-Ops was a bitch, hadn't she? So, any brainwashing she'd once had was long gone, and would hopefully stay that way if she held onto such thinking.

But since Vada had given in… did she _really_ believe she felt bad about what had happened, and wasn't still under Manticore's influence?

Max probably would have risked telling Vada she was full of shit, too, if at that moment she hadn't said the golden words.

"And speaking of our family... you know that they have Jondy too, right?"

"Jondy? How… why? How did they get the youngest of us now, and who let it happen?" And Max didn't care about anything she'd just thought of Vada… because they _would_ get Jondy out with no consequences, and she would be her old self. She would be.

Or else Max would just off herself, because she had no reason left to believe in this world.

**Author's Note: I am so sorry for such a late update. I'm just working on a million stories right now. But I haven't abandoned this story, and never will.**


End file.
